They used 3 closers that year and Cotts + Polite were the only reliable arms night in and night out.

Those 3 closers all had shaky moments throughout the year. Shingo was bad. Hermanson had a bad back. Jenks was a rookie who actually blew a save in the WS.

All the credit to me goes on that starting staff. They carried that team to a Championship.

Noooo, no, no, no my friend. Even if we go with just Neal Cotts and Cliff Polittte being "dependable" that year, that's 2 guys that posted sub .200 batting averages against, pitching at least 60 innings each. A handful of players do that every season. Teams would love to have ONE guy do that, just one. And that being their best reliever, which is usually their closer if anyone. The Mariano Rivera's of the league. But to have that be middle relief? And to have TWO of them do that in the same season? Quite a luxury.

Especially in the case with Cotts that season. It could be that maybe his stat line is bolstered by dominating lefties, but it's not. He pitched very well against them, but you could argue he pitched even more effectively against righties, and actually faced more righties than lefties. That season, it didn't matter, you could throw him out there against basically anyone.

Overall, the White Sox relievers allowed the 2nd lowest percentage of inherited runners to score. All while having the 6th most games where a reliever entered the game with runners on base. They were huge that year.